Here is a tantalizing piece of news from James of jkOnTheRun, reporting that Fictionwise is working on an iPhone version of the popular eReader software. James received the following word:

Quote:

Apple released their SDK for iphone/itouch on March 6. We have two Mac development experts doing the work to make eReader function on the iphone/itouch right now. Apple will allow third party applications, like eReader, to be used by customers after the next iPhone/iTouch firmware update which is currently estimated to be released on June 30 and we expect to be done with our porting work at about the same time.

However, there is also a wild card in that Apple must approve of each and every application released for iphone/itouch, and we are currently seeking information about what the criteria are to qualify. We will certainly support these devices if we possibly can and Apple allows it.

Here is a tantalizing piece of news from James of jkOnTheRun, reporting that Fictionwise is working on an iPhone version of the popular eReader software.

I am glad he asked, though it seems a bit misleading that he makes it sound like breaking news or a recent announcement. I think James must have slept through the response at first, because the email he quotes was originally sent to the Fictionwise Yahoo group way back on May 7th. Nevertheless, it is pretty neat that Steve (from Fictionwise) actually answers questions like this on the group. When asked for an update on Thursday, Steve's response boiled down to "When we know, you'll know."

Still, good to know they are working on it. In a separate email to the group Thursday, Steve also mentioned "We have a lot of exciting announcements coming up in the next month or two on eReader format." Hopefully iPhone info is one of them. Might the Astak Mentor be another?

I think it is likely Apple will approve the app based on the criteria we've been presented with so far. A e-reader is not a bandwidth hog, has no reason not to shut down and restart when the user switches between applications, and doesn't even have a large storage requirement.

I do have two questions that I have yet to see answered: what kind of local storage do apps get, and how can they sync with a desktop or on-line repository? To put it another way, how would I get books onto the iPhone in the first place.

Will Fictionwise charge for the App, or use it as a razor to sell the books?

All the other versions of eReader are free, so it would be odd if they were to charge for the iPhone version.

Agreed.

In fact, in the past eReader had two levels, the standard application, and a pro version with some extra features (dictionary lookup, some customization, etc.). They used to charge for the pro version. When Fictionwise took over, they did away with that scheme, and just went with free reader applications. So I don't expect them to go back the other direction just six months later.

MobiPocket did exactly the same - they too had a basic reader which was free, and a "pro" version which was charged for. They then made the "pro" version free. I guess they've all realised that the profit lies in the books, and giving away high-quality reading applications is the best way to sell the books.

As far as I understood Mr. Jobs on the last two keynotes, they will approve the software and only look after "sex drugs & rock'n'roll" content.... and if it is a freeware product, what can they say? On the other hand there might be some deal with amazon in the future, or any other ebook seller. Let's make sure, that you can browse through your library using coverflow and everything will be all right.

i'm a wee bit late to the party here, but i am thrilled to hear that ereader is planning an ebook app for the iphone, since most of my ebook collection is in the ereader format. i do like my kindle, but i'm not enamored with it, and would sell it if ebooks do become easily available on my iphone. i do take my iphone everywhere with me (even as i walk around in our house, oddly enough), and using it as an ebook reader would be the ultimate in convenience for me, particularly if OTA book downloads are available, as they are for windows mobile devices...

Last edited by macgirl; 06-19-2008 at 07:33 PM.
Reason: grammar is my friend